One of my least favorite days during the year is my birthday because I’ve been accustomed to it being a so-so to a bad day. I took my Criminal Law final on that day during my first year at law school and I was abandoned by my “friends” on the day I turned 21. That being said, my worst birthday is when I had to speak at a union convention in Albany or at least I attempted to speak.
With all due respect to the people who live near Albany, New York, it’s not my kind of town probably because of my continued disdain of our state government. That being said, the law firm partner in charge of this client couldn’t make the union’s annual conference, so I was asked to speak instead as well as a junior partner.
The topic was retirement plans and ERISA and the junior partner had limited knowledge. He wasn’t a very good public speaker and he didn’t have a great, friendly personality. He also didn’t want to follow an outline, so he thought he could just wing it and talk for 30 minutes. He could have done the right thing and let an ERISA expert like myself to speak, but he let his ego and title get in the way. I learned close to the end at the firm that associates were seen, but not allowed to speak.
So I drive the 3 hours to Albany on my birthday and we go through the presentation. It was an absolute disaster. At one point, the junior partner lifts his ERISA book up like it’s the Bible and he was a Minister. It wasn’t the Bible and he certainly didn’t sound like he could command a Church or Synagogue. Needless to say, the session we presented was the worst rated breakout session during the entire union convention.
The point here is that when you’re the person in charge of an organization and there is someone better to speak, step aside and let someone who can do a better job do it. When I was working at a firm, a client down south needed expertise on adding a new feature to the plan. The partner who thought he knew it all and always wanted to be the face of the organization decided to speak instead even though he didn’t practice ERISA for 20 years. Needless to say, the discussion down south was so good that the client fired us..
Getting clients is a hard thing to do, so getting your ego in the way when you have people in your organization that can do a better job is silly. There is no shame in letting the stars of your organization shine; it doesn’t mean your star gets eclipsed.